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Sponge-like nickel phosphide–carbon nanotube hybrid electrodes for efficient hydrogen evolution over a wide pH range

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Abstract

Cost-effective hydrogen production via electrolysis of water requires efficient and durable earth-abundant catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) over a wide pH range. Herein, we report sponge-like nickel phosphide–carbon nanotube (Ni x P/CNT) hybrid electrodes that were prepared by facile cyclic voltammetric deposition of amorphous Ni x P catalysts onto the threedimensional (3D) porous CNT support. These compounds exhibit superior catalytic activity for sustained hydrogen evolution in acidic, neutral, and basic media. In particular, the Ni x P/CNT electrodes generate cathodic currents of 10 and 100 mA·cm−2 at overpotentials of 105 and 226 mV, respectively, in a 1 M phosphate buffer solution (pH = 6.5) with a Tafel slope of 100 mV·dec−1; the currents were stable for over 110 h without obvious decay. Our results suggest that the 3D porous CNT electrode supports could serve as a general platform for earth-abundant HER catalysts for the development of highly efficient electrodes for hydrogen production.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51372133). L. Z. thank the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation for funding support (No. 2015M571019). This work made use of the resources of the Beijing National Center for Electron Microscopy at Tsinghua University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physical Engineering and Laboratory of Materials Physics, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450052, China

    Shuying Wang & Yingjiu Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Shuying Wang, Li Zhang, Xiao Li, Changli Li, Rujing Zhang & Hongwei Zhu

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  1. Shuying Wang
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  2. Li Zhang
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  3. Xiao Li
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  4. Changli Li
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Correspondence to Yingjiu Zhang or Hongwei Zhu.

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Wang, S., Zhang, L., Li, X. et al. Sponge-like nickel phosphide–carbon nanotube hybrid electrodes for efficient hydrogen evolution over a wide pH range. Nano Res. 10, 415–425 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1301-9

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